This disclosure relates to input methods.
Languages that use a logographic script in which one or two characters correspond roughly to one word or meaning have more characters than keys on a standard input device, such as a computer keyboard or a mobile device keypad. For example, the Chinese language contains tens of thousands of characters defined by base Pinyin characters and five tones. The mapping of these many-to-one associations can be implemented by input methods that facilitate entry of characters and symbols not found on input devices. Accordingly, a Western-style keyboard or mobile device can be used to input Chinese characters. Likewise, input methods can be used for using a Western style keyboard to input many other languages that include ideograms, such as the Japanese language, the Korean language, and other languages.
An input method editor (IME) can be used to realize an input method. Using the Chinese language as an example, a user can input one or more Pinyin characters, or queries, which are processed by the IME to provide one or more Chinese character candidates. One scenario includes a query-to-candidates mapping function: f(query)=candidates, where a query includes a sequence of ASCII keys and the candidates includes a list of Chinese or non-Chinese strings. Although other input-to-output mappings that map ASCII queries to Chinese or non-Chinese candidates, such mappings are limited in functionality.